Hatched during the presidency of Mrs. Aquino, the SDO enabled Hacienda Luisita and other huge landholdings to escape coverage by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Hacienda Luisita was exempted from CARP distribution by placing the 6,453-hectare sugar estate under the SDO, a non-land transfer scheme, which converted sugar workers into stock holders and daily workers receiving P9.50 per day without any share in the gross sales.
The Cojuangco-Aquino family had issued a memorandum last December 18, 2008 ordering all farm workers who occupied about 2,000 hectares of the 6,453 hectares of Hacienda Luisita to destroy their crops and vacate the lands on or before October 2009.